System Mastery

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/system-mastery-188-star-crossed.mp3 Oh my, a game about the uncertain moments at the precipice of romance or disaster?  Neat!  Star Crossed is a 2018 game by Alex Roberts that creates tension and titillation through the use of some sort of well-recognized wooden brick tower.  It’s not out of print or anything!  We’re trying something relatively new...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/system-mastery-187-marvel-universe-roleplaying.mp3 Out of the four Marvel RPGs that have happened over the years, this is one of them.  Specifically, the 2003 diceless one made, inexplicably, by Marvel Comics themselves?  Anyhow, it’s certainly got us talking a great deal, so you know that’s always good. This week’s Announcement Masteries Inspirati...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/system-mastery-186-supermegatopia.mp3 There’s nothing quite so exciting to find as a unique blend RPG.  Here we see a blend of comedy, furry stuff, light breast expansion and pregnancy fetishes, and superheroes.  I bet you didn’t know you were missing that unique swirl of content!  Well, anyway, you shouldn’t. This week’s Announcement Masteries “Di...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/system-mastery-185-teens-in-space.mp3 Ween or Treatween!  Wait, what? This game is new!  How the heck did that happen?  Well, Jef’s supply of alien books isn’t low, but neither of us wanted to read something in Phoenix Command style rules and end the season mad, so we called an audible.  Ever wonder what we think about much more modern game design?...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/system-mastery-184-mib.mp3 Oh no, are your pumpkins ablaze?  Have you written out your list of mischief targets exclusively for the eyes of Ol’ Weeny?  Well, get ready, because this October, it’s all new, all different IN SPACE, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU WEEEEEEEEEEN adventures.  We’re doing alien games.  Pretty simple.  And we’re starting with this one....

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/system-mastery-183-rifts-world-book-3-england-1.mp3 Ooh look, a supplement!  People love it when we do the supplements, right?  We sort of needed a break for a bit while Jef navigates some medical shenanigans, so we tried to keep it light.  And failed, this episode is huge.  Oh well!  More millennium trees for the rest of you!   Learn more about yo...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/system-mastery-182-itras-by.mp3[/audio] Check out this wild game!  No, literally, go check it out!  This is a wild read of improv-driven story focused diceless gaming set in a surrealism-infused Norwegian dream city in the 1920s.  It’s neat!  Come on by for a rare System Mastery win.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/system-mastery-181-warhammer-fantasy-roleplaying-1st-edition.mp3 Small but vicious dog, right?  You remember that?  It’s that joke that’s in here?  Anyhow hi there, how ya doin’?  Wanna talk about a 1989 game that seems like it mysteriously sat unread on a shelf since 1977?  WHFRP 1st edition can do that!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit m...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/things-we-hate-about-dd-part-2.mp3 Hey whoops this was only ever free on our Patreon.  Should be here too.  Now it is.  Hooray!  The balance is complete and finally I can diminish, and go into the West. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/system-mastery-180-robotech.mp3 Yeah, we needed a break again.  Jesus, Wraeththu.  So for now, let’s dive into dependable old Palladium.  Two scoops of whoops in every book!  Robotech is one of the early Palladium license titles, which is always a source of hilarious conflict and tone problems in every try, and here we find it, surprisingly fast. ...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/system-mastery-179-wraeththu-from-enchantment-to-fulfillment.mp3 Okay, guess break time’s over!  This book is enormous, weird, and in a lot of ways, misguided.  The world has collapsed, humanity has fallen, and the Wraeththu have risen in their place.  And what are the Wraeththu?  Androgynous hermaphroditic semi-vampiric aruna-having yaoi people, d...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/system-mastery-178-the-land-of-ogg.mp3 We needed a break to finish our second book, and when you live in a gig economy that just means doing a smaller job that week!  The Land of Ogg started around 1993 and is a game about dumb cavemen failing at everything.  Here is an obligatory joke about the current federal government.  Please enjoy.   Learn mo...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/things-we-hate-about-dd-part-3.mp3 No really, they’re the worst.  Play another game.  Also while we’ve got that picture of Radcliffe up there, our opinion is that JK Rowling is a TERF piece of shit, so.  Everyone sucks.  Just sucks.  Sorry about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/system-mastery-177-senzar.mp3 With 26 races, nearly 40 classes, giant complex martial arts systems and a battle world that has run amok for aeons aesthetic, where could SenZar possibly go wrong?  It’s an excess of boring riches on today’s System Mastery.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/system-mastery-176-high-strung.mp3 Grab your amps and start planning setlists, as we take a look at a game that eschews the classics of dungeon diving in favor of trying to make it big in the music world.  Does it deliver hot licks?  Or… I am bad at music, I guess cold licks?  Yes, does it deliver cold licks?  Well, come find out!   Learn more abou...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/system-mastery-175-call-of-cthulhu.mp3 Yes, it’s not a D&D game. Don’t worry. It’s going to be okay. We still found a classic, the Chaosium flagship and the biggest name in leaning heavily on public domain stuff Call of Cthulhu.  And hey, you might just be in need right now of people dumping on the febrile racism of a cowardly germophobe (Lovecraft...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/system-mastery-174-alma-mater.mp3 We’ve posted so many episodes at this point that the only reason this one’s description isn’t just “Fuck this game” is that I’m not sure I didn’t do that for a previous odious heap.  This game was banned from GenCon in the 80s because it’s got a bunch of teen sex in it.  That’s one of the reasons it’s bad.  Sure. ...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/system-mastery-special-things-we-hate-about-dd-part-1.mp3 So hey, remember when we wrote that book?  Jef apparently didn’t because this special content powered by pre-orders has been sitting unedited on an external HD for months.  The only thing that could force him to remember was the diligent reminders from listeners couple with the completion of...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/system-mastery-173-smallville.mp3 It was about time we discussed the Cortex engine, and what better way to have a discussion than driving 45 minutes to a Kansas farm so I can say one sentence about how I’m upset and then drive away again to reset before I do it two more times next episode?  Smallville is a game all about building out a whole season...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/system-mastery-172-darwins-world-1.mp3 It’s post-apocalypse OGL gaming here so it may seem like something we’ve done before, but is it?  I hope not, but honestly 171 is a lot of episodes to go back through and I think we’re all a little tired right now.  It’s mutants, running around an irradiated post-war Earth, and they call women “furniture” in i...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/system-mastery-171-tunnels-trolls-1.mp3 The year is 1975.  The hair is stupid.  The clothes are stupid.  The music?  Mostly stupid.  The movie scene was okay (Rocky Horror?  Jaws?  Come on now).  And the RPG scene was… heartbreakers already!  Tunnels and Trolls sure was an attempt to fix D&D by doing things differently for once.  Let’s look back, s...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/system-mastery-170-dragonraid.mp3 Someone tweeted about this, someone else linked it to us, and now we’ve reviewed it.  The DragonRaid Adventure Learning System:  A Roleplaying Game for Courageous Christians.  It’s probably safest to just link to the review now.  Happy quarantine!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/system-mastery-169-rampant-live-action-roleplaying-1.mp3 Lightning bolt!  Lightning bolt!  Lightning b… you get the idea.  It’s a LARP game!  And for us, a weird one, since we’ve never actually encountered one before that just looks like local park dress up goodtimes with boffer weapons, and yet here we are!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visi...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/system-mastery-168-timeship.mp3 Timelord!  Would you like to play an RPG as yourself and then, you know, get rewarded for showing up to the table with weapons and German soldier uniforms and stuff?  Well here you go!  Timeship is a mad game from the early 80s where yeah, there’s not much in the way of stats, because you’re playing as yourself!  Wha...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/system-mastery-167-supplement-spectacular-2.mp3 A fun side effect of doing what we do is that listeners send us stuff.  All the time.  We have just tons of books.  Jef’s room is basically two used RPG bookstores with a hidden bed in it.  And we don’t just get core books.  Heaps of fascinating supplements arrive from time to time as well, like so ma...